In the mystery genre, I generally lean toward police procedurals or hard-boiled
crime fiction. I’m not so much a fan of cozies
. But I do quite like this cozy. And that’s even with another strike against it as far as my tastes go. I generally don’t like books about British stiffs, particularly blue bloods. My eyes glaze over whenever the subject turns to English nobility. I actually have a similar reaction to the antebellum South as well. But, as I said, I liked this book.
It’s set in an alternative England. I’m not quite sure where Walton had this one diverge from real life. The U.S. never intervened in World War II, the British and the Germans have a truce, and Europe is effectively controlled by the Germans. In the early 1950s.
Chapters alternate between two perspectives: Lucy Kahn and Inspector Carmichael. Lucy starts us off at a party at her parent’s country estate, Farthing. The entire Farthing Set will be there. The Farthing Set is a faction within the Tories that once controlled the government, lost that control, and is on the rise again. On their return to London, the Tories are expected to vote into positions of power several of the party-goers. Except that one of them, James Thirkie, is killed over night, his body found stabbed with the knife holding a Jewish star in place on his chest. That’s where Carmichael comes in. He has to investigate. There’s even a component of no one can leave the house because one of us is the murderer
going on.
The pace is a little slow at the beginning, but it picks up. It ends with a mad rush and a bang. It never got duller, only more interesting.
I like the alternative history scenario. Too many stories I’ve read were what if the Nazis won
kinds. This is somewhat different. It also gets to explore how fascism and Jew-hating could arise in countries other than Germany. Plausible scenario? Not really. But there certainly has been an anti-Jewish part of the British and America populations that never really was addressed because we got caught up in patriotic fever after joining the war. What if it grew and expanded?
There’s another method I frequently see used in alternative history books as well as some literary fiction set in historical settings. That is the tendency to overdo appearances by historical characters. For instance, in The Darling Russell Banks has made up all sorts of connections between his characters and the real life rulers of Liberia during the 1980s and 1990s. In Orson Card’s alternate history fantasy The Tales of Alvin Maker and Mike Resnick’s Dragon America we are treated to what new prominent role would the famous people play in the alternate reality?
Walton doesn’t do that thankfully. Her book only mentions Winston Churchill. He doesn’t play a role in the story. I like this because it keeps the focus on the characters in the story rather than distract from them.
Watch the Skies did pretty good by releasing this as an e-book. I doubt I would have purchased it otherwise, but now I’ll be buying book two Ha’Penny (though probably not right away, my list of stuff right on front of me is pretty damn large).
Title: Farthing
Author: Jo Walton
Series: Small Change; 1
Imprint / publisher: Tor / Holtzbrinck
Format: Electronic book (PDF)
Length: 319 p.
Publication date: March 2008
Subject: Police — Great Britain — Fiction
Subject: Country homes — Fiction
Subject: England — Fiction
LC classification: PR6073.A448 F37 2006
